by Dee King
“Sebastian?” Selene grabs my hand.
“Sorry, I spaced for a minute.” I try to apologize to her without her seeing the fear on my face.
“What's wrong?”
“Nothing, just sick of waiting around for what is to come.” I was frustrated with all of this beyond being able to hide it much longer.
“We will be alright.” She closes her hand around mine.
I can feel the warmth of her palm in mine. It calms me for the moment. All this time I had believed that it was about Selene and I falling in love, which would make Zeus very unhappy. However, that was never what this
game was about. It was about pride; it was about who was going to be the fearless leader of the worlds and who was going to walk away being the winner of this stupid game. And what the hell were we winning anyways?
A ruler of the worlds? I had never wanted that! Hell, I wasn't sure I wanted to rule the Underworld, and now I may be the god of gods, or worse, mortal? What would that be like? Being a mortal would never suffice me,
and I think everyone knew this about me. I was arrogant to a fault at times. I was selfish to a degree; heck I was downright cold hearted when I shouldn't be. Oh my gods, I already acted like a mortal in so many ways, that maybe that was my fate. I wasn't going to give up and just let them win, though, no, I am going to fight. It's not an option. Nothing ever just happens, there's always a reason, I just wish someone would tell me how
to win. My thoughts get the best of me as I fear that I may not know how to protect us from what our future may be. Apollo had made it seem that we were meant to conquer the worlds, but at what costs would this be?
Would someone else I love have to die, would there ever be peace amongst our kind again? How would we find this peace if we were bringing war to us all over the fact that one god had decided what he had wanted for everyone? This wasn't a just and fair fight, this was ego against ego. Where sons had fought their parents to become Gods of the worlds, only to one day want that for their children. None of this ever made sense to me, not the hurried marriage, not the fighting with Alexander, it was like we all had been preparing for our fathers’ work, not what we wanted.
As my mind raced, I had a crazy thought, but it might just work.
Chapter Thirty-Four
We're all mad here
If my plan was going to work in any way possible, I had to start with the people I had trusted most. The ones I knew who would be on my side, and that was a very small amount of friends. We had left my father's home in
search of sleep for the night. I couldn't sleep I needed to think. I needed to plan this exactly the way my father would have. Sneaky, manipulative to some point, and above all else, I needed them to see I was possibly right.
All our lives we had been made to follow the rules, follow their path, but now was our time. Now was our time to rise up, to become one, once as they had done. If I was right about my fear, that Alex was going after
Selene's mother to start the war, I had to find him fast before what was done couldn't be undone. No more help from our parents, we needed to stand on our own. This needed to be our fight. They had one agenda,
themselves, and we were always the pawns in their family feud for all these years. Surely I could get some of them to understand that this was the right way to go.
First, I would start with Selene. This would be my only way to get some of the others on our side, for this plan to work. Most of all, I needed them to know that this was not a rational plan. Even though I felt like I probably
had better plans, this was just going to have to be the one we used. We would need to fight our parents if we wanted this to stop. We had included them every step of the way. Now, it was time for us to stand for what we wanted. I begin telling Selene of my plan as she sits at the end of the bed in Cato and my home in Alexandria.
“Are you crazy or have you just gone mad?”
“Just hear me out.” I plead with Selene to listen to me.
“You want me to trust Alex and Cali? You have really lost it, Sebastian. There aren’t two people I hate more than the two of them, and you think we should try to make an alliance with them?” She was no longer sitting
on the edge of the bed, she was standing, actually moving towards the door.
“Selene, just stop and think about it, and if Alex's big move is to kill your mother to start this, then what do you have to lose?” I blurted that out of my mouth before I had thought about it.
That was my first mistake. She turned fast on her heels, hands clinching at her sides, with her teeth barred at me.
“What did you say?” She was moving slowly towards me, yet I could tell, that I maybe should have told her this idea earlier.
“I don't know if that's his plan, but that has been rumored. Now, hey, calm down, that's probably not the case.” I put my hands up to say don't shoot me, because I feel like it was that whole shoot the messenger moment, and
I was kind of scared of her at the moment.
“He plans to kill my mother?” The words hissed out of her mouth.
“No. Yes. I don't know for sure, that's just what was running through my mind since they have been watching her.” I try to keep moving away from her as she keeps walking slowly to me.
“That, that will never happen, you hear me. Alex will not take my mother from me, I will make sure I kill him this time, and Cali too!” Her eyes were turning a red as her cheeks grew pinker with anger.
“Calm down. Listen, I think my plan will work. She won't die, but you are going to have to listen to me.” I decide to move closer to her then farther back.
“Sebastian, how are we going to beat any of them? There's no way.”
Finally, I had her listening, she was beginning to calm down for the moment.
“I think we have what Alex wants and we just want to live our lives. I think if somehow we could make a trade for that, he would be game for this.” I can see that she's considering my plan, as her palms fall from their tight grips back to her side.
“Okay, but who do we trust?” She asks me.
“First Ian, then Cato.” That last name barely made it out of my mouth, but I knew more than anyone else, he wanted to be accepted as the rightful heir to my father's throne, and this may be his way to it, just faster.
“Um. okay, I guess that's a start.” She was still a little mad as she pushed her hair out of her eyes, but I could tell that she was seeing that my plan may not be ludicrous after all.
I take her hand in mine. She looks at me while I admire her. All I wanted was for us to have some kind of normalcy in our lives, and if we had to do it this way to get it, then that's what we were going to do. It was late at
night. Knowing that both Ian and Cato would both be up, I decide no time like the present to get this started. We walk hand in hand out of my room, towards the room Cato had taken. I knock on the door before entering
because I could hear voices, and I didn't want to walk into what I had the last time.
“Who is it?”
“Who do you think it is?” I say as I roll my eyes. Seriously, who did he think it was going to be?
“Come in.” As I open the door, I hear covers moving around on the bed.
Iris and Cato were both sitting straight up on opposite sides of the bed.
“Again? Really?” Selene says something before I can. We both begin to laugh.
“No, not again, we were um. Working on the plan.” Cato tries to cover for them.
“Oh, yea, what do you have planned?” We both sit on his couch across from his bed.
“We both think there's a different solution to all of this.” Iris points with her eyes to Cato.
“Please, share.” I was curious if his plan was close to mine or closer to my father's.
“If we can get Alex on our side we may be able to take down all of them.”
Selene and I pause, looking at one another. He had the same plan I had.
“Seriously? Do you liste
n in on our conversations?” I ask him, sitting up straighter on the couch.
“Wait? What? You think this might work too?” Cato asked me.
“Yea, I kind of do.” He tosses his head back in a gesture to laugh with a smile across his face.
“Damn, we might be brothers after all.” I even had to laugh at that, as we all did.
“Alright, so how do we even find Alex to see if this could work?” Cato and I are trying to start to plan this. I could see that neither Iris nor Selene was too excited about this idea.
“What?” Cato stops talking for a second, questioning Iris.
“And if this doesn't work, then what do we do? Do you think we can actually beat all of them? They defeated their parents! We aren't them, not even close. This is the highest of betrayal to our parents. What do we do if they win?” No one said a word.
I guess I hadn't thought that far in advance. I don't really know what our punishment would be from our fathers for this. I don't think I really cared either. I was tired of being in this stupid fight. I just wanted it over, no matter what the outcome was.
“Who cares.” Selene finally spoke up.
“What?” Cato asks her.
“Who really cares? I mean we could die either way we do this, and our loved ones could die too, so what does it matter how this plan works or the other one. All I know is I am ready to start living or start dying. All of this
is just prolonging the inevitable. Either way we have a fight coming and we all need to know that.” Selene was making a lot of sense. We just wanted to get this over with no matter the outcome. Of course, we chose to fight with everything we got, but we also aren't stupid. This has to be a united front if we even want a slight chance to win this war.
“This is true. I think we need to find Alex and see what he's really doing.” I suggest.
The only problem was we had to leave the mount again, and that alone wasn't going to be an easy task. We talk for the rest of the night trying to come up with a plan to surprise Alex, and possibly a back- up plan if this
didn't work. I had felt I lost both of my parents in such a short time. I know that I haven't, but I felt my father had done what he always did. Put him first, me last. This was going to be tricky to say the least if we can even convince Alex to go along with this. He wanted what his dad wanted. Ryker had already told us that he had been trying to save Selene from him. Now, the problem is - who is telling the truth? Do we trust Colin and his team or do just the four of us go and risk bringing the fight to earth? These are the questions we played out all night. We would
give Alex the throne if it was allowed, Selene and I had already decided. If we won he could have it, but as of right now we were the rightful heirs to the throne for the gods. There was no doubt that we could rule the worlds,
better than Alex would ever think to do, but that just wasn't something we had asked for. Actually, we hadn't asked for any of this. I knew Selene had been thrown into a world that she had never imagined. This had to be the
hardest on her. It was almost unheard of that a migades would have the right to the throne, which made me start wondering if she truly was a migades. She moved, she thought, she maneuvered like a goddess, not a
half goddess. What if Selene wasn't who we thought she was? I had feeling that the story had only just begun.
Only we wanted this to be the end of the story, not the beginning.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Bringing the walls down
Finding a way back to earth right now was the hardest part. Jumping back and forth to both worlds was hard enough, but trying to do it without being noticed, that was another ordeal. We had to do this quick before anyone
realized that we were gone. After we all had slept for what seemed a short time that was when we were to make our getaway. The safest place for us to leave from was my hiding spot that I had taken Selene to when we first
got here. I didn't like having to share my secrets with Cato, but I no longer had a choice. We wake, eat in silence, all the while knowing we were taking a huge risk. This huge mansion was so quiet that if there was a
mouse in here we would have heard it. Cato tapped his hand on his knee vigorously like he had some kind of nervous twitch, while Iris sat poised and straight faced. Selene was the only one who looked ready to go. Her
mind was racing with thoughts of whether to kill Alex or not. I know, I know, I am not supposed to listen to her thoughts, but she wasn't speaking and I had to know. A knock at the door startled us all. Almost like we had been watching a scary movie and someone touched one of our shoulders. I stood to answer the door, pushing my chair back from the table, as Selene went into stealth mode, standing to her feet fast following me. She was
prepared for whatever was to come of all this, and I felt like a timid child.
I was bound and determined to not show any fear. I open the door without hesitation. Ian and Zack stood there together. They almost looked like twins. Plain black shirts, jeans, and of course, black Converse.
“Hey man.” Ian says trying to just walk in. The same rule had applied on our mansions that the other ones did. He couldn't just walk in.
“Hey, just say yes and let us in.” Ian tells me.
“Come in.” I move away from the door going back to my seat at the kitchen table. They both walk in happier than we all looked.
“What is wrong with you guys? You look like you’re going to war or something.” Ian laughs at himself.
He loves to play the irony card as many times as he can.
“Do you need something?” Cato asks him.
“Um yea, I need Sebastian to whoop your ass.” Again he laughs, and none of us do.
“Alright, seriously, what's going on?” Ian takes a seat at the table, while Zack still stands.
“Zack, you can sit.” Selene smiles up at him. It's the first words she has spoken since last night. He sits down at the table too, quickly and quietly.
He looks at her in an adoring way. She had that about her.
You couldn't help but smile at her when she smiled at you.
“We're leaving.” I blurt out. I really needed to stop doing that.
“You're what? To where? When?” Ian looks at me with his eyes big as saucers.
“Soon. We can't tell you much. I don't want you to have anything on us that they could use against you.” I tell him quietly.
“I am going with you.” Zack stands to his feet.
“No, you can stay here, too. Keep everyone safe.”
“No. I am going.” He crosses his arms over his chest.
“We might need him.” Selene leaning over, whispers to me.
“Alright, but you may not like what we are about to do.”
“Don't care.” He won't budge from his stance.
“You are going to go find Alex? Are you stupid or mental?” Ian stands back from the table slamming his fists down on the table.
He had figured out our plan. He knew me way too well or he had just read my mind.
“Dammit! You aren't supposed to be reading my mind!” I yell back at him.
“Oh please. I do it like every day. You can't be serious with this! This plan?”
“We are.” Cato and I say in unison.
“Oh, he's going too? You have really lost it, brother. I mean you have lost it. Alex has a whole army and you're taking this fool?” He points to Cato, still standing on his feet.
“Listen, we have a plan. It may not work, but we have got to try.” I try to assure him that we know what we are doing. Unfortunately, I was telling myself this, too.
“Okay, so what happens? You just stroll up to Alex and say let's be friends? I am gonna doubt that will work.” He rolls his eyes.
“No, but something like that.” Selene speaks up, while rolling her eyes back at him.
“You can't go.” He tells her.
“Excuse me?” Now, Selene is standing.
“You're the bait. You think he doesn't want you to come to
him to make this easier for him. All of this started because of you!” Ian finally let out his true feelings about all of this.
I knew he struggled with that fact he felt all of this was started over her. But this was never about her. It was predestined. He had liked his life. He never seemed to
understand love or the pull it had on any of us. He only knows strategy and war.
“You are going too far, Ian, and you know it.” I moved closer to him.
“You know what? This is getting us nowhere. We need to go.” Cato announced.
I nod in agreement; I didn't need Ian making things any worse. We all move towards the door, while Ian stomped around. He wasn't happy about this scenario at all. Usually, he was the front runner and the planner of